


Going to the Movies

by Oyasumi



Category: Free!
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-21
Updated: 2015-01-21
Packaged: 2018-03-08 12:43:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3209654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oyasumi/pseuds/Oyasumi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Haru surprises Rin by inviting him to see a movie together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Going to the Movies

Rin wasn’t sure what he was expecting when he picked up the phone to check his voicemail that afternoon. He assumed it would be the usual – Gou calling to catch up with him, or maybe Rei wanting another swimming lesson.  It could have been Sousuke, Nitori or Momo wanting to hang out.

What Rin didn’t expect was to hear was the automated voice intoning “one missed called from Haruka Nanase, press one to hear new voice message.” Haru had called him? And what’s more, he had actually bothered to leave a message when Rin hadn’t picked up?  Haru normally acted like he had an allergy to phones. Rin would generally have to be the one to call him, and even then it took him multiple tries.  Suddenly he was worried; it must have been something serious for Haru to go out of his way to call him. He hurriedly pressed one.

There was an awkward silence when the message started that stretched to the point where Rin wondered if Haru had sat on his phone while it was in his pocket and accidentally dialed his number.  It would certainly explain the uncharacteristic behavior. But just as Rin was considering hanging up and calling Haru back to tease him about it, he heard Haru’s voice. “Rin.  There’s a movie I had wanted to see. …I wondered if you wanted to see it with me tonight. Let me know.”

Hm, a movie that Haru wanted to see?  Rin wracked his brain to try and think of what movies were out recently, and more specifically if any of them were related to water. Come to think of it, there was a movie about pirates that had just come out – probably lots of water scenery in that. Rin snorted and called Haru back to let him know he’d be happy to go.

* * *

 

As it turned out, the movie Haru was apparently dying to see was _Blossoms in December_. Rin eyed the movie poster on display as they stood in line – it was in black and white and a woman was crying under a barren tree while a man in the background watched her. It looked like some kind of romantic tragedy.   

“…Haru…” Rin began, and Haru turned his head to look at him. “Are you trying to make fun of me?”

“Why would you think that?” Haru asked innocently.

“I can’t imagine you’re the kind of guy who’d wanted to see a movie like this.” He gestured at the poster.  “I mean, this looks like the sort of thing Gou would drag me to see with her!”

Haru raised an eyebrow. “Really? Gou is the one who drags you to see movies with her? Because from what I’ve heard, it’s the other way around.”  He wasn’t outright smirking yet, but Rin could see his lips quirk slightly.

“I can’t believe this!” Rin grit his teeth and balled his fist. His face was getting red, though if it was from irritation or embarrassment he wasn’t sure. It was true that he had enjoyed those movies, but the only reason he had gone to see them was for Gou’s sake! So what if he knew her tastes and suggested movies she might enjoy on their outings? It’s not like he was begging her to go see them or anything! “You called me up and dragged me all the way out here to see a movie with you just so you could tease me about being a good big brother? Really, Haru??”

“Hey…” Haru’s expression softened, though Rin noted that he still looked amused. “That’s not why I asked you.  I wanted to spend time with you and see a movie, but I thought you’d be too embarrassed to pick out a movie you’d enjoy.”

This conversation was making Rin even more embarrassed, but he laughed a little to play it off. It seemed like Haru was being sincere. “Yeah, well…” He wasn’t quite sure what to say. “Don’t just assume you’d know what kind of movies I like. Besides, I’m surprised you even wanted to go to a movie at all.”

Haru shrugged. “It seemed like you and your sister always have fun together. And Nagisa enjoyed seeing a movie with you a while back.”  Then Haru nodded his head forward to draw attention to the fact that they had reached the front of the line. “Choose whatever you want.”

Rin looked up at the marquee of movies that were currently playing. ..In all honesty, he would have liked to see _Blossoms in December_. If Haru had honestly wanted to see it, at least he would have had a reason to pick it. The pirate movie that he had assumed they were going to be watching had already started and the next showing was an hour away. There was nothing else he wanted to see. He glanced back at Haru, trying to find an out. “I guess… if you really had your heart set on that movie, we can go watch it. “ He said, loud enough for the people in line and the woman in charge of handing out the tickets to hear.  Haru looked unimpressed, but nodded. “Okay, two tickets to see _Blossoms in December.”_ As he paid for and received his ticket, he could almost feel the woman’s judgmental eyes burning a hole into him. …It was probably just his imagination.

“You shouldn’t be embarrassed for liking what you like. There’s nothing wrong with it.”  Haru mumbled reassuringly beside him as they made their way to the theater.  “You are who you are.”

* * *

 

It was a little over an hour and a half into the movie when the trouble began for Rin.  The heroine of the movie thought her lover had died and was weeping alone in her house and giving a speech about how much she missed him.   It was just so sad, and Rin felt the beginning of tears prickling in his eyes.

‘Oh no. No no. You are not going to cry. Not in front of Haru.’

Rin subtly glanced over at Haru to see what he was doing -he was watching the movie and didn’t seem to be paying attention to Rin, which was good. But he would definitely notice if Rin started to cry. He took a quick swipe at his eyes with his sleeve to make sure they were dry.  

‘Just…don’t pay attention to the movie.’ Yes, that would be a good strategy. Instead, he looked down at his hands and examined them, but that didn’t seem to be distraction enough - he was still paying attention to what the woman was saying. 

Giving up on that tactic, he looked at Haru again, trying to decipher what was going through his head as he stared at the screen.  Haru didn’t look particularly affected by what was going on in the movie, but then he was always better at keeping his emotions to himself than Rin was.  It was pretty much impossible to tell whether Haru was sad about what was going on or whether he was thinking about how much he’d like to swim in the women’s tears. Probably the latter option, knowing Haru. Rin nearly snorted at that, but stopped himself at the last second – he didn’t want to make too much noise at such a serious moment in the movie.

Rin let his mind wander from what Haru was thinking about to examining his features.  Haru had always been good looking – Rin had thought so even when they were kids.  Nothing had changed now that they were older, except maybe that Haru had become even better looking.  Or maybe that was just his imagination?  Really, he didn’t look that much different, except he was more muscular than when they were younger.  To Rin, Haru did seem better looking now – and he didn’t think it was the muscles influencing his opinion, but he couldn’t put his finger on what it was.

“Rin…” Haru’s whispering voice suddenly snapped Rin out of his thoughts, “the movie is over there.” He gestured at the screen.  Rin was glad that the movie theater was dark so that Haru couldn’t see how much he was blushing this time.

“I...I know that!” Rin shot back, trying to think up an excuse for why he had been staring at Haru instead of the show.

Haru glanced over at him, “If you’re thinking about holding my hand, just do it.”

“W-what?  Really??”  Rin was so taken aback that he almost accepted the offer, almost reached out to take Haru’s hand – before he realized that Haru was probably just teasing him. “Tch. Who would think about holding hands with you? What is this, a date? Let’s watch the movie, Haru.”  

 Once Rin was satisfied that Haru had turned his attention back to the movie, he followed suit. The saddest part seemed to be over anyway; now the movie was focused more on the action – the leading man was fighting off his enemies in order to get home to his love.  He would be safe to watch the show now without crying.

Rin was focused on the movie, so when he felt someone else’s hand close around his own he tensed in surprise. He whipped his head around to look at Haru, but Haru was still looking at the screen like nothing was going on.  Even so, he felt Haru giving his hand a gentle squeeze, imploring him to make a move. After a few moments’ hesitation, Rin turned his hand over so he could give Haru’s a squeeze in return.

“Haru?” Rin whispered, but Haru kept watching the movie without looking over at him. He couldn’t really tell in the dark, but It looked like Haru might have been blushing…just a little? Not that he could blame him- Rin didn’t even want to know what he looked like right now.  Rin looked down at their hands and then back at the movie screen, but it wasn’t like he could focus on what he was watching now. Not when there were so many questions running through his mind, like ‘what does this mean?’ Just a few minutes earlier, he had said ‘what is this, a date?’ but he hadn’t _meant_ it. But was this Haru’s way of telling him that this was, in fact, a date?  Or was he reading too much into it?  No matter how you sliced it, taking someone else’s hand during a movie definitely wasn’t something platonic friends usually did.

‘It’s probably just Haru being Haru.’ Rin tried to rationalize.  He didn’t want to mistake the situation for something it wasn’t and risk embarrassment later on.  More importantly, he didn’t want to get his hopes up either.

* * *

 

They had ended up holding hands for the entire rest of the movie. The awkward moment had come when the lights came back on (they had sat through the credits to see if anything else was going to happen – Rin hadn’t thought so, but he wasn’t in a hurry to leave) and they had to let go and get up and make conversation.

“So uh…” Rin had started, as they headed back out into the lobby, not really sure of what to say. He wanted to talk about the movie, but instead he blurted out, “what was…that?”

He mentally kicked himself, that hadn’t been what he wanted to talk about, but he had to know. “In there, I mean. Why did you hold my hand, Haru?”

Haru looked back at him, frowning a little. “I thought that was obvious?”

“What?? Uh, no, it’s not obvious at all!”

Haru’s eyebrows knitted together, like he was genuinely surprised that Rin hadn’t understood what he was doing. “…You asked me if it was a date.”

“...Oh.”  Rin was momentarily stunned.  So he had been right? It was a date after all?  “That’s why you invited me here today?”

Haru nodded in response.

Rin shook off his surprise, “Haru…what kind of person invites someone on a date and doesn’t even tell them it’s a date ahead of time?!  You can’t just spring this kind of thing on a guy, you know?!” He was talking a little too loudly now, almost shouting.

“So you didn’t want it to be a date?” Haru asked quietly.

“No, I - of course I wanted it to be a date!”  He scratched the back of his neck sheepishly, “I mean, I’ve had a crush on you since I was a kid. But that’s beside the point! I had no idea that this was supposed to be a date until just now. Hell, I didn’t even know you had feelings for me before now.” It was a lot to take in at once.  “I would have dressed up nicer, if I had known. And we could have done something more romantic.” He mumbled the last part.  

“I liked it the way it was.” Haru shrugged a little, “Rin?”

“What?”

Haru didn't say anything, extending his hand out to him instead. Rin sighed and took it, giving it a squeeze. “I liked it too, but next time I’m going to take you on a proper date, okay?”

“Okay.” Haru agreed, leaning over to give him a kiss on the cheek, causing a warm feeling to spread through Rin.  This whole thing was a lot to process, it had had happened so fast, and Rin wasn’t sure the full reality of the situation had even set in yet; but one thing was for sure - he was definitely looking forward to their next date. 


End file.
